Review: The Beast in Him

Reviewed by Jen

After kind of lukewarm feelings toward the first installment in this series, I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue on with these books, but I am glad I did. I found that I enjoyed this story. The things that were good in The Mane Event were good here as well: the humor and the delectable sexy times. But in this case, with a full length book I got a chance to know the characters a bit better and get more excited about their romance.

Our hero is Smitty, also known as Bobby Ray, Alpha of the New York branch of the Smith pack. (You may remember him as Mace’s best friend and business partner.) The storyline is actually pretty similar to Mace’s in that it’s a second chance love story with the teenage crush who never turned into more. In this case, Smitty’s lost girl is Jessie Ann. She grew up around his father’s pack, but unlike the Smiths, she was not a wolf, but an African Wild Dog. She was bullied by the wolf girls and Smitty was always trying to protect her… until he left to join the Navy.

Now it’s 16 years later and Jessie is no longer that meek girl he left behind. She is now very successful and alpha of her own dog pack. He wants her, but she rejects him at every turn. She doesn’t want to give him the chance to hurt her again. But the chase makes her even more attractive to Smitty and he pursues her relentlessly.

Much like in the last book, the whole Southern stereotype and the two part names got a little old. But it wasn’t beat quite as far into the ground. I loved watching Jessie hold her own under Smitty’s onslaught. She put up such a great fight! I loved that despite their differences, she was still strong in her own way and that she refused to settle for anything less than what she wanted.

As I mentioned, the sex was great. We had some pretty good sexual tension, but once these two got in the bed… well, they wanted to stay there a lot. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

I also laughed out loud with great little gems like:

He had her right where he wanted her. In his lap, on his cock, feeding him chicken. A man, any man, couldn’t ask for much more.

I loved that chicken scene.

Overall, I’d say it was an entertaining story and I’ll definitely be back for The Mane Attraction.